Demand that Facebook removes pages promoting sexual and other violence against women.

The National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ), with the support of White Ribbon Campaign, believes that Facebook should immediately remove pages which promote sexual and other violence against women.

Facebook’s Terms of Service clearly prohibit users from posting material which is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains gratuitous violence. There are also rules against bullying, intimidating or harassing other users and using Facebook to do anything discriminatory.

Nevertheless, there has been a proliferation of ‘pro-rape’ pages and other pages which encourage violence against women on the social networking site.

Examples of pages currently live on Facebook include: ‘You know she’s playing hard to get when you’re chasing her down an alleyway’, ‘Punching pregnant women in the stomach’, and ‘Riding your girlfriend softly cause you don’t want to wake her up.’

These pages, and many others like them, clearly violate the Terms of Service, but Facebook refuses to remove them.

As an organisation working to improve the status of women and build a society in which women are safe, NCWNZ strongly urges Facebook to remove this material.

Violence against women is an issue here in New Zealand. Statistics tell us that one in four women will experience sexual assault, and one in three women experience partner violence in their lifetime.

NCWNZ and White Ribbon Campaign encourage all New Zealanders – men and women – to take a stand on this issue and support our campaign. Join those who have signed petitions in the US and the UK and let Facebook know that New Zealanders do not condone a culture in which rape and violence against women are OK.